STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2129

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 2912

 

 

 

Honorable Colleen Hanabusa

President of the Senate

Twenty-Fourth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2008

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committee on Intergovernmental and Military Affairs, to which was referred S.B. No. 2912 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE COUNTY OF MAUI,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose of this Act is to appropriate funds to the County of Maui for the costs of recovery and damage mitigation necessary as a result of the winter storms of December 2007.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the State Department of Defense and the Chair of the Maui County Council.

 

     In December 2007, winds in the fifty to seventy-plus mile per hour range and heavy flooding and rainfall struck the Hawaiian Islands, causing extensive property damage, downed power poles, land and mudslides, thunderstorms, and waterspouts.

    

     On Maui, official rainfall totals reached the one hundred year event level in some areas and Maui county sustained estimated damages in excess of $1,200,000 from the storms.  County, state, and federal officials conducted a preliminary damage assessment following the storms, and officials reached an initial assessment of twenty-nine homes or businesses classified as major or destroyed, and another sixty‑five classified as sustaining minor damage.

 

     While state and county officials continue to reach out to residents and businesses that have suffered losses, more resources will be needed to complete the recovery process.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Intergovernmental and Military Affairs that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2912 and recommends that it pass Second Reading and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Intergovernmental and Military Affairs,

 

 

 

____________________________

LORRAINE R. INOUYE, Chair